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1 1 (October 23, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goverbm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Con ressional Research Searc fo~ rung I Ieg~ I lived in ~ m co 914 0 Updated October 23, 2024 Hamas: Background, Current Status, and U.S. Policy Hamas (or the Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist military and sociopolitical movement, and a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO). Hamas's primary base of action and support is in the Gaza Strip, which it has controlled since 2007. It also operates in the West Bank and Lebanon, and some Hamas leaders and personnel live and/or work in various Arab countries and Turkey. Hamas reportedly receives material assistance and training from Iran and some of its allies, including the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah (another FTO). From its inception, Hamas has overseen a social welfare network that appears to have aided its popularity among Palestinians while serving as a conduit for some funding for Hamas military operations. On October 7, 2023, Hamas led a surprise assault against Israel that killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals (including 46 Americans) and took around 251 persons hostage (including some Americans)-more than 100 of whom were released in November. The attack's scope and lethality were unprecedented for Hamas. The ensuing conflict, which has reportedly killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, has reshaped Middle Eastern dynamics, with implications for U.S. policy and Congress. Origins, Ideology, and Leadership An outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas emerged in 1987 in Gaza during the first Palestinian intifada (uprising). After the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) entered into a peace process with Israel that created the Palestinian Authority (PA) to exercise limited rule in the West Bank and Gaza, Hamas established itself as an alternative to the secular Fatah movement, which leads the PLO, by violently attacking Israeli civilian and military targets. Hamas's ideology combines Palestinian nationalism with Islamic fundamentalism. Hamas's 1988 charter committed the group to the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine (comprising present-day Israel, the West Bank and Gaza), and included anti-Semitic rhetoric. Observers differ on the extent of Hamas's pragmatism. In 2017, the group publicly released a statement that Hamas's conflict is with the Zionist project rather than with Jews in general. It also expressed willingness to accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza if it results from national consensus, but said Hamas would not recognize Israel's legitimacy. Hamas's formal leadership structure consists of a 15- member politburo as the group's primary decision-making entity and a Shura Council that elects the politburo-with similar structures for the West Bank, Gaza, prisoners in Israel, and the diaspora. In July 2024, Israel may have been responsible for the killing in Iran of Ismail Haniyeh, who chaired Hamas's politburo while based in Qatar. Also in July, an Israeli strike in Gaza reportedly killed Hamas's military leader Muhammad Deif. In October 2024, Israeli soldiers killed Haniyeh's successor Yahya Sinwar. Sinwar had been Hamas's leader in Gaza since 2017, reportedly masterminded the October 7 assault with Deif, and had been Hamas's key wartime decisionmaker. With much of Hamas's top leadership killed, questions surround the movement's future. It has persisted despite the Israeli assassinations of several of its other leaders over decades, but losses Hamas has suffered since October 7 may be unprecedented. Leadership succession within Hamas (featuring figures either within or outside of Gaza) could have repercussions for the remaining hostages and for Hamas's approach to cease-fire negotiations or continued conflict. While some commentators saw Sinwar's death as an opportunity to end the fighting, others predicted continued irregular warfare from Hamas and little change in Israel's posture. Other Iran-backed groups engaged in conflict with Israel-particularly Lebanese Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen-have linked prospects for de- escalation to the end of Israeli military operations in Gaza in some form. Timeline of Key Events to 2023 1987-2005 Hamas emerges as main Palestinian rejectionist group (with support from Iran and private Arab sources) by engaging in violent attacks against Israelis; the United States begins subjecting Hamas to financial sanctions in 1995 and designates Hamas as an FTO in 1997. 2005 2006 2007 After the second intifada (2000-2005), Israel unilaterally cedes responsibility for Gaza to the PA, but Israel (with Egypt) retains control over land/sea/air access. Hamas wins a majority in Palestinian Legislative Council election and leads new PA cabinet; Israel, United States, and European Union confine interactions and funding to PA President Mahmoud Abbas. West Bank-Gaza split: Hamas forcibly seizes control of Gaza Strip; Abbas reorganizes PA cabinet to lead West Bank; Israel and Egypt impose security-related restrictions on the transit of people and goods in and out of Gaza. 2008-2021 Rounds of major Israel-Hamas conflict in 2008- 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2021 end with little or no change to status quo in Gaza; 201 I exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit returns more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners (including Sinwar). 2023 Hamas-led October 7 assault begins major ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza.

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